Don’t Raise the Limit on Obama’s Credit Card

Fear-mongering works – why not try again? This must be the thinking behind Obama’s latest attempts to manipulate the new Congress. Austan Goolsbee, chairman of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers, trotted out before the cameras this week to threaten the Republican Congress, saying that if they don’t raise the limit on the USA’s debt ceiling, the “impact on the economy would be catastrophic.”

Goolsbee spun the new lines cooked up in the White House communications office on ABC’s This Week: “If we get to the point where we damage the full faith and credit of the United States, that would be the first default in history caused purely by insanity.”

The real insanity is to continue to roll up debts we have no hope of paying. Goolsbee’s comments are part of a coordinated preemptive plan to blame the new Tea Party Republicans as the economy sputters. When fear reaches high levels, people don’t think clearly, and this is exactly what Obama is counting on.

The current legal limit on borrowing is $14.3 trillion, and unless the new Republican Congress adopts Obama’s proposed higher limit, across-the-board spending cuts will result. How tragic: If the debt ceiling doesn’t pass, politicians will actually have to begin budgeting like adults in Washington.

This is a big test for candidates supported by Tea Party and anti-spending activists. Will they hold to their pledges to rein in government spending? Or, will they adopt the ways of Washington and blink because of Democratic attempts to vilify and marginalize them with their dire threats?

America has only two choices: Stop the insane overspending, or dramatically raise taxes to pay for the free-spending lawmakers’ excesses. There are some great alternatives to raising the debt ceiling. Congress should hold votes to eliminate farm subsidies, abolish the Department of Education, close the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), shut down the Department of Energy, repeal ObamaCare, and bring our troops home from places like Japan and Europe.